


garden day

by dontgotothenetherworld



Category: Beetlejuice - Perfect/Brown & King
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-09
Updated: 2020-06-09
Packaged: 2021-03-03 19:47:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,245
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24631036
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dontgotothenetherworld/pseuds/dontgotothenetherworld
Summary: barbara x reader set before the events of the musical where reader is the maitland's next door neighbortaken from my tumblr of the same username; posted nov. 23, 2019, nov. 28, 2019, dec. 16, 2019, and jan. 11, 2020.
Relationships: barbara maitland/ reader
Kudos: 1





	1. garden day

**Author's Note:**

> ok so before the events of the musical, while the maitlands are still alive, you, a single parent, attempt to grow a garden after being inspired by your next door neighbors. the key word here is attempt.
> 
> 628 words
> 
> cw: gnreader. i was also v gn with the kid so sorry if that’s awk.

how did they get it so pretty? you wonder to yourself as you water your flowers. are you supposed to water the flowers? do they need less water? are you drowning them?  
“hey? hey neighbor?” a feminine voice calls to you.  
you look up, “oh, hi!”  
“didn’t you just move in?” she asks, walking up to the fence that separates the two yards.  
“yeah, last month. i’m y/n, by the way.”  
“that’s a pretty name! i’m barbara.”  
“nice to meet you, barbara. what brings you over to my um…” you gestured at the muddied ground with the occasional sprout mixed in.  
“i was actually wondering if you wanted some advice on how to make your garden better.”  
“yes please!” you walk over to the gate to let the woman in.  
she quickly got to work explaining the needs of the different plants.  
“yeah thanks for the help, really, it’s so appreciated, but there is no way i’m going to remember that.”  
barbara laughs, “what do you say about me coming over every once in a while to help you even more?”  
you blushed, “that sounds incredible, same time next week?”  
“of course, y/n!” she said gleefully.  
you checked your phone for the time, “hey i’ve got to go pick up my kid from school, talk to you later, right?”  
“only if you don’t over water the lilies.” she joked.  
you waved bye at her as you ran inside your house. she didn’t move until she heard you start up your car, when she was jarred back to reality and realized she should probably get out of your backyard.  
you found yourself anticipating the garden day, as you’d named it, and it was in no way because of the plants.  
this garden day, she invited you and your child over for dinner.  
“it’ll be so fun! i’m going to make it using stuff i’ve grown! oh! and it’s an old family recipe! and i can’t wait to meet your little one! you’re going to love adam! he’s like you, not very good with the plants, but he tries.” she rambled on when you agreed to come.  
“barbara! slow down! you don’t have to say everything at once!” you had to admit, your heart dropped a little when she mentioned her husband.  
but the dinner was truly wonderful. barbara was a wonderful cook, and the fresh ingredients only emphasized that.  
your six year old insisted on making a desert to bring, a chocolate cake of course, and the maitlands gave near continuous praise to the young baker while they ate it.  
“don’t let them know it’s just a box mix” they whispered to you.  
you continued to see barbara every week, but each time the two of you became less and less focused on your flowers.  
“so who is your little one’s dad?” barbara asked one day. “sorry, that was probably rude, you don’t have to answer that if you don’t want to.” she stared at her hands.  
“oh, it’s fine. he was a one night stand who i never heard from again.”  
“oh…”  
“it’s fine, though. we’ve been fine by ourselves. but dating has been harder. too many people think dating someone with a kid is too much of a commitment.” you sipped on your drink.  
“i don’t think of it that way.” barbara said quietly.  
she looked up at you and the two of you locked eyes.  
you quickly broke the eye contact as you felt a tear forming in your eye.  
she stood up and walked over next to you.  
“y/n…”  
you stood up too.  
“y/n.”  
“babara.” you were standing so close to her.  
“y/n… is this okay?” she brought her hand up to your cheek.  
instead of answering, you kissed her.


	2. garden day 2, signifigantly less garden

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 713 words
> 
> cw: gnreader.

after you kissed barbara, you realized what you had done. you just kissed a married woman, you dumbass.  
you ran out of her house and into your own.  
you slammed the front door, and leaned, panting, against it.   
“the first friend i’ve made in this damned town and i’ve just ruined it.” you muttered to yourself.  
you were startled by your phone ringing. you picked it up, in case it was the school, calling about your child.  
it wasn’t, it was barbara.  
you didn’t pick up. you couldn’t pick up. sometime between the kiss and now, tears had begun to make their way down your cheeks. and when you cried, anyone could hear that in your voice. and you couldn’t let barbara hear that.  
a day passes by, and you’ve just gotten out of the car. you open the door for your child, and they wave to your next door neighbors, “barbara! adam! hi!”  
you quickly usher them inside your home, careful not to make eye contact with either of them.  
you’re helping them with their math homework, when you hear an elaborate knocking pattern at the door.  
they run to go open it. “adam! are you here for dinner?” you heard in the other room.  
you walked over to your child and leaned down, “how about you go up to your room, alright?”  
although confused, they ran up to play with their toys anyway.  
“adam…” you attempted.  
“y/n, barbara told me what happened.” this was what worried you.  
“she did?” you found yourself unable to look him in the eye.  
“yeah. she really likes you, y/n.” he tried to look you in the eye, but you carefully trained your eyes on the wooden floor.  
“and, i’m not entirely sure how it would work, but she wants to be with you, and i’m pretty sure you want to be with her.”  
you finally looked at his face. it was full of sincerity.  
“are you saying what i think you’re saying?” you asked cautiously.  
“i am. but i don’t want you stealing my wife away from me entirely!” he joked.  
“i don’t think there’s any worry of that.” you said quietly, still yet to fully process what adam had said.  
“oh! and barbara asked me to ask you if you wanted to go out for dinner tomorrow.”  
“tell her yes.” you grinned at him, “now go! your wife awaits you!” you practically shoved him out the door.  
your little one’s door creaked open, “what was adam here for?” they called down.  
you debated how much to tell them. it was clear they liked being around the maitlands, but you didn’t want to get their hopes up in case things go wrong.  
“he invited me out for a girl’s night with barbara, and he said he’d love to hang out with you for the night until i get back!” you cringed at your lie, but you did need a baby sitter, and you had forgotten about it until now.  
“yay!” they jumped around and did their little dance that you adore.  
you quickly texted barbara, “okay so i 100% want to go out with you tomorrow, but i completely forgot i’d need a baby sitter, so any chance you can convince adam? if it helps, i may have accidentally already said that adam’d be over tomorrow night. sorry.”  
a few minutes later, barbara responded, “yay!! also adam meant to tell you he’d babysit, but i guess he forgot, so it’s fine! p.s. how does dinner and a show sound?”  
you clutched your phone to your chest. knowing that barbara wanted to be with you just made your heart flutter like it never has before.  
conveniently, tomorrow happened to be garden day. you didn’t expect barbara to still show up, but she did.  
“y/n! still need help with the chrysanthemums?” she leaned on the fence.  
you panicked, not knowing how to respond. how do words work again? so you just nodded.  
she hopped into your backyard, and began working, slowly showing you how to do everything. “so, one of my friends is playing a show tonight, so i figured we could go see them after dinner.”  
“that sounds like fun!” you said, probably a bit too enthusiastically.  
barbara giggled. god, she’s beautiful.


	3. garden day 3, hardly any garden

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 883 words
> 
> cw: gnreader. eating. food. anxiety.

after barbara left, you stayed in the garden for a good hour. you stared at the wondrous beauty of nature as you tried to sort out your emotions and thoughts.  
you looked at your reflection in the mirror. you tried to do your hair differently, and you weren’t sure if you liked it.  
but the doorbell rang and it was to late to do anything about it.  
“adam! are you here to babysit me?” you heard, muffled from downstairs.  
“yes! so, i was thinking that we could do some arts and crafts!” adam had a different voice when it came to your kid. it wasn’t condescending or anything, just more excited.  
“did you at least look to see who it was before opening the door?” you called to your child, as you walked down the stairs.  
barbara stood at the door, and her face lit up when she saw you. she was wearing a knee length dress, that was more structured around the bodice. it had this gorgeous pink flower pattern across it, and she had a lipstick that matched the colors. she was stunning.  
“yeah. and it was adam and barbara, so i opened it.” your child said plainly.  
you chuckled and began to address adam, “i don’t exactly know when we’ll get back, but do you mind tucking them in? they’re bedtime is 8:30, but you can let them stay up til 9:00.” your child jumped up and down in excitement. you weren’t vary lenient with their bed time.   
“we’ll see about the staying up late thing.” he gave a mischievous glance to your child. “but you shouldn’t worry about it. go, have a good time!” he practically pushed you out the door.  
you blew a kiss at your child before adam closed the front door.  
you stumbled into barbara. “i’m sorry.” you muttered, suddenly blushing.  
barbara laughed and took your hand, “ready to go?”  
“ready as i’ll ever be.”  
barbara took you to an irish place in your town. it was a little dim and dirty looking, but barbara promised the food was amazing.  
she asked the hostess if the two of you could get a table near the stage. her friend’s band was supposed to start playing in like an hour.  
the two of you talked while you waited for your food to arrive. apparently she likes rock, who knew?  
you kept nervously looking around the restaurant. you hadn’t been in this town long, but you didn’t know how long the maitlands had been there. were they social people? did everyone in this packed restaurant know that barbara was married? you saw multiple people gawk at her holding your hand.  
you were starting to sweat.  
“barbara?” you interrupted her story in a shaky voice.  
“yeah, y/n?” she put her other hand on yours, and you nearly cried.  
“barbara, can you please not hold my hand?” you said in just barely a whisper.  
the restaurant was loud, and you were surprised barbara heard you at all.  
she instantly drew her hands back into her lap, and looked at you with a concerned expression on her face. “is it because of,” she nodded at the people at the tables around you.  
you nodded as you fought back tears.  
she started to put her hands on yours, to try and calm you down, before she realized what she was doing. she awkwardly put her hands back.  
“y/n, are you going to be alright? we can leave if you need to.”  
but before you could respond, the waiter came by with your food.  
as soon as they turned their back to leave, you reassured barbara, “it’ll be fine. now, i’m hoping this is good.” you dug into your food.  
you noticed that barbara had hardly touched hers, she was watching you to see your reaction. you began to laugh and covered your mouth. “what?” you asked with a mouth full of food. way to go, y/n. good job at remembering etiquette for eating while around other people. good thing barbara doesn’t much care for etiquette.  
barbara searched for words for a moment before giving up, and taking a bite of her food.  
“oh shit…” barbara muttered.  
“what? is anything wrong?”  
“so… i usually get what you’re having, but i think i just found a new favorite.”  
you giggled. you realized how quickly your anxieties had been forgotten.  
“we are…. known fox!!!” a man screamed from on stage behind you. you hadn’t realized the band was even set up.  
“known fox?” you asked barbara.  
“they change their band name every full moon. be glad it isn’t something grossly sexual.” barbara started cheering for her friend.  
if you’re being honest, you forgot which one she said was her friend. or if she said. but all these guys looked like irresponsible a-holes. at least they could play decently well. the lyrics suck, though.  
barbara seemed to be enjoying herself. you couldn’t tell if it was because she didn’t want to hurt her friend’s feelings, because she didn’t want it to seem like she was having a bad time on her date with you, or because she was actually genuinely enjoying herself. you came to the conclusion that it was probably all of the above. but mostly she’s just a genuine person.


	4. garden day 4, surprisingly still some garden

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1022 words
> 
> cw: gnreader.

you giggled at the band’s awful attempt at making a song about sex not seem like a song about sex. some songs just weren’t meant to be made, especially one that is definitely not about life on the plains.  
”that’s frog orgy for ya!” barbara joked over the music.  
”don’t you mean know fox?” you said with a mouth full of the most delicious chocolate cake you had every had.  
”potato potato.” she said.  
”you know you’re supposed to say it differently, right? like pota-”  
”that was the joke, y/n!” barbara said, at just the right moment when the band (known fox? frog orgy? who knows anymore?) stopped playing. a few people in the tables surrounding you shot barbara a weird look. she broke out into giggles again.  
”alright! this is going to be our last song tonight!” the lead singer screamed in the most horrible australian accent that has possibly ever been screamed. this band was making you feel a lot of things, but none of them what they were going for.  
you and barbara screamed and clapped. mild applause from the rest of the pub.  
completely ignoring your deserts, you and barbara attempted to sing along to the band’s last song. you weren’t entirely sure if barbara knew the lyrics because she was messing up just as much as you were.   
but the entire time, you couldn’t help but wonder; what was going to happen after this? were you going to leave and head home? were you going to have to awkwardly stay and hang out with the band? would you get some alone time with barbara? if you did, what would happen?  
your head was spinning.   
the song ended on a drum solo. the drummer was probably the best one up there, so you weren’t mad at that.  
the waiter stopped by the table with the check, and barbara picked it up before you had a chance to ask how you’d be paying. “you don’t need to pay for my stuff, i can get it.” you said anyway.  
”thanks for offering, y/n, but this is my treat. don’t worry about it.” she gave your hand a quick squeeze that sent butterflies through your chest. barbara looked like she had just remembered your earlier conversation. “sorr-”  
”it’s fine, barbara. i’ll tell you if it’s not, but thank you.” it felt like they were different levels. you weren’t fine with her holding your hand before, because it was a constant, her hand was always there, and just anyone could see that she was holding hands with you, someone who was definitely not her husband. but her just squeezing your hand? blink and you’ll miss it. no one was paying attention to your table so it didn’t matter.  
”hey! barbs, how are ya doing?” the drummer of the band came over. that must be her friend.  
”i’m good, i’m good. how’re you doing?” she replied.  
”i’m doing great, man. what did you think of the set?” you felt kinda awkward just sitting there. neither of them really paying attention to you. but like, that’s fine. they’re old friends catching up.  
”you were amazing! i can really tell that you’re getting better.” said barbara. smart, not mentioning the rest of the band.  
”what did you think, ….” he struggled for your name.  
”i’m y/n. i second what barbara said. you’re probably my favorite part of all that music.”  
”thanks, y/n, but i know that’s not saying much.” so he did know that they sucked. “i’m gavin, by the way.”  
”well it was a pleasure to meet you, gavin.” you smiled at him. he was nice. nice enough that you weren’t concerned that barbara was friends with a douchebag. he could still be a douchebag, but you couldn’t tell if he was from your interaction, so you were satisfied.  
”i think we better get going, see you later, gavin!” barbara linked her arm around yours, and started leading you to the door. you turned and waved at gavin. with a friendly smile, he waved back.   
”he seems nice.” you voiced your thoughts as you stepped out into the crisp night air.  
”he is. we’ve been friends since,” barbara counted in her head, “junior year of high school. which is when he moved here and we got put in the same lit class. what did you think of the band?”  
you snorted, “they were horrible, but it was endearing.”  
”wow, i can’t believe you found the words to accurately describe them.” barbara started the car.  
”are we headed back home?”  
”not unless you want to. i had something else in mind first.”  
”then drive on!” you were worried that it was getting too late, but adam was taking care of your kid, so they were fine. you trusted adam, nothing was going to happen to them.  
you told barbara various stories about a particularly odd teacher at your kid’s school as she drove you to wherever it was she was driving you to.  
”perfect timing!” barbara said as you finished your story. The building she parked in front of was dark, and so were the other ones on the street.  
”i’m pretty sure they’re closed…?” you said.  
”i’m not taking you to paul’s toy emporium, silly.” she ran over to your side of the car to open the door for you. “nobody’s around, by the way.”  
”good.” you grabbed her hand and kissed it.  
barbara led you down the sidewalk that was next to paul’s. behind the five or so mom n pop businesses was a garden, full of roses.  
”what do you think?” barbara asked you, sitting on the fountain in the center.  
you sat next to her. “it’s gorgeous.”  
barbara blushed, “i figured it’d be appropriate. because we got to know each other because of your garden.”  
”no, no, no. it’s because of your garden. i would not have started mine if i didn’t see yours every day.” you laughed.  
”thank you, y/n.” barbara looked into your eyes. under the moonlight, in the rose garden, she looked at you as if you were the most beautiful thing around.


End file.
